Chinese doctor admits selling patients' newborns

BEIJING: A Chinese doctor has admitted in court that she persuaded parents to give up their newborn babies so that she could sell them to human traffickers.

The official Xinhua News Agency said obstetrician Zhang Shuxia stood trial on Monday in northern Shaanxi province´s Fuping county in a case that exposed the operations of a baby trafficking ring that operated across several provinces.

Xinhua says Zhang sold seven babies between late 2011 and July 2013 to human traffickers after getting their parents to give them up by telling them the babies were incurably sick. One of the babies died.

Child trafficking is serious problem in China, where traditional preference for male heirs and a strict one-child policy has driven a thriving market in baby boys.